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Nam Tok, mai mii nam!

§ March 5th, 2007 § Filed under Thailand § Tagged , , § No Comments


I’ve just got bak from a trip to a waterfall with no water and so they’ve decided to go off to one that is an hour away. After an exhausting weekend “off”, I’m knackered and so am staying behind to do some blogging.
We had one night away in Nakhorn Rachasima and spent most of it ferrying people back and forth from the hospital. One of our team members was bitten by a dog and is now on a course of rabies injections, another didn’t bother to tell anyone that she was in pain because sh hadn’t pooed since we’d arrived (5 days ago!), and the lasty one had been having diarrhea since we’d arrived. Moral of the story kids…drink more water, and for gods sake tell someone if you are ill so we can advise you and you don’t end up on a drip in the hospital! All are doing well now.
The house is also coming along swimmingly. It’s almost finished in fact which is very satisfying.
I want to post some photos. but the electricity is really flickering here so I don’t want to lose this post. Stay tuned!To keep you entertained until then, here is the truck I’ve been driving round in to carry bricks and also the site when we first arrived. Wait until you see what’s happened since then.
Tomorrow is the last day and we will get to dedicate the house so we are very excited.
I am now going for a nap before dinner so I can enjoy our last real night here since we’ll be leaving at about midnight tomorrow night for Bangkok.

Unbelievable measures of procrastination

§ February 22nd, 2007 § Filed under Laos, Thailand, travelling § Tagged , , , § No Comments

I’m reviving this poor old neglected blog. Or at least I’m going to do my best! I’m off to Thailand and Laos in just two days (actually one if you count my day in Tokyo beforehand) and I can’t get my head around my presentations. I’ve pretty much finished two of them, but the third one is glaring at me from it’s little minimised box at the bottom of my screen. I wish I’d said that I would only do two, but it seemed like three was the only option.

The first ten days of my trip will be in a little place called Pak Chong in northern Thailand where two other teachers, me, and a group of students from my college will be building a house with Habitat for Humanity http://www.habitat.org/ap/ . I’ve bought my workgloves, have packed my old cross-trainers, and am ready to go.

After that, I’m going to spend a couple of weeks in Bangkok. I can’t wait! Bangkok, despite the pollution and all the other bad things people point out, is actually one of my favourite cities in the world. And it’s exciting how quickly things are changing there. Our favourite vegetarian cafe, which was once just two foldable tables on the side of a street has slowly blossomed. Just ten years from eating with your feet by the sewer to this http://www.thaivegetarianrecipes.com/. May Kaidee now has a cooking school and guesthouse. But thank god she’s still making my favourite mango, warm coconut milk, and red sticky rice pudding.

Finally, I’m off to Laos for the first time. I’ve always wanted to go there and we just never quite fit it in. I’ll be working with Teachers Helping Teachers and giving presentations to local Lao teachers of English. They can’t really afford to go to the big international conferences and so this one is being brought to them by a bunch of really cool teachers who are volunteering their time, efforts and money. www.geocities.com/yamataro670/tht.htm I’m really looking forward to having a good look round Vientiane. We’ve already been offered a tour of a coffee plantation.

I really can’t procrastinate any longer. Gong he fa choi!